The Soldier

As
we stand on the brink of certain war, it is only fitting that this month’s
Patriot Corner be dedicated to The Soldier.The following piece has been published all over the Internet and
forwarded by practically every patriot discussion group in existence to every
email address on their vast lists.I
believe it even exists on this site on another page.Never-the-less, read it again with a new understanding and a
deeper reverence for those original soldiers and the many young people we will
send in harm’s way in the very near future.Say a prayer for them and their families, and while you are at, pray that
their spirit never wavers.Deb V

Close
your eyes and picture in your mind the soldiers at Valley Forge as they grasp
their musket in their frozen hands. Put yourself in the place of just one of
those men and try to experience how he would feel if he knew then how America
would dishonor his sacrifice and the sacrifice of those soldiers and patriots
yet to come.

He stands near barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, festering
wounds wrapped with filthy rags from months of battle and emotionally scarred
from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing but death and
carnage of war. He stands tough, with fire in his eyes and victory on his
breath and comrades dead and dying around him. He looks at us now in anger and
disgust and tells us this...

"I gave you a birthright of Liberty born in the Constitution as secured
under the Bill of Rights and now your children graduate too illiterate to read
it, let alone understand it.

I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the Liberty to vote and you stay at
home because it rains.

I left my family destitute to give you the freedom to speak against government
abuse and you stand silent as your remaining liberties are blatantly stripped
from you and your children yet to come, and why?Because it might be bad for business or some bureaucrat might
send you a letter threatening to tread on the rights that I fought to secure.

I orphaned my children to forge a Republic to serve you; my progeny and you
have allowed today’s government to deny the people access to and the protection
of that Republican form of government.

It's the soldier not the reporter who secures to you the freedom of the press.

It's
the soldier not the poet who secures to you the freedom of speech.

It's
the soldier not the campus organizer who secures to you the right to speak out
and freely associate with those of like mind.

It's
the soldier who salutes what the flag stands for, who serves what the flag
stands for, and finally if he pays the ultimate price, whose coffin is draped
with that flag . . .the same flag that the protester is free to burn!!!”